Campaigning Complicates Governing

President Barack Obama is about to launch his most concerted effort yet to help Democrats win full control of Congress, a foray that could bolster the party in the 2014 midterm elections but threatens to undercut his efforts to win Republican support for his second-term initiatives on immigration, gun control and the budget.

ENLARGE

President Barack Obama greets Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell earlier this month. The president has made a high-profile effort to court Republican input on legislation.
Associated Press

Mr. Obama is headlining fundraisers in San Francisco next week for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the organization that helps House candidates, the kickoff of a political blitz unlike anything he did in his first term to help party's congressional wing. All told, Mr. Obama has agreed to headline about 21 party fundraising events this year alone.

In addition, Vice President Joe Biden already has jumped into the fray, speaking at a House campaign event in New York last weekend. "The country's ready to move and we have a House of Representatives that is in the way right now," Mr. Biden said in New York. And both Messrs. Obama and Biden have agreed to help recruit candidates for the party.

Democrats are delighted. But the president's intensified partisan commitment fuels a Republican view that Mr. Obama wants his party to control Congress for the final two years of his presidency more than he wants bipartisan achievements in the next two years. "He's the president who never ends the campaign," said Rep. Greg Walden (R., Ore.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. "So we see a couple quick trips up to Capitol Hill to say 'Can't we get along?' then there's the never-ending campaign to take out Republicans."

WSJ's Economics Editor David Wessel says lawmakers managed to avoid shutting down the government over their budget fight but it's not clear that Democrats and Republicans will reach a compromise. Next up: Will Obama's budget in early April lead to a deal?

Democrats control the Senate, but Republicans have controlled the House since the 2010 midterm elections. It is hardly unusual for a president to be helping his party in midterm elections while pursuing bipartisan legislative goals. Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton both were heavily involved in their parties' midterm campaigns while seeking bipartisan legislative deals

But Mr. Obama's effort is being launched at a time when he is mounting a particularly public outreach to Republicans on budget issues, but it has been met with consistent skepticism.

Earlier this month, Mr. Obama had dinner with Senate Republicans to seek partners for a possible budget deal. He visited with larger groups of House and Senate Republicans behind closed doors. Dan Pfeiffer, a senior White House adviser, said those efforts aren't undercut by the president's fundraising plans.

"The president is absolutely committed to helping House and Senate Democrats in every way possible in next year's elections —just as Republican leaders will do everything to defeat Democrats—but that doesn't mean we can't try to forge bipartisan compromise to help the middle class,'' Mr. Pfeiffer said.

New York Rep. Steve Israel, the Democrats' House campaign committee chairman, said Mr. Obama's fundraising will complement rather than undercut his legislative aims. If Republicans won't compromise, Mr. Israel said, "he needs a Democratic Congress that will work with him."

But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) has said he is particularly discouraged that the campaign 2014 focus has kicked in so soon after the 2012 election. "I know Washington Democrats' most important priority right now is getting Nancy Pelosi her old job back in 2014," Mr. McConnell said earlier this month. "But that's not what Americans want—and that's why Washington has become so dysfunctional."

Mr. Obama has made it clear to fellow Democrats that winning control of the House is a top priority. He has promised this year to headline six fundraising events for the House campaign committee, six for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, two House-Senate events and about seven for the Democratic National Committee. The first House events will be Wednesday in San Francisco, where donors can pay $5,000 a person for a cocktail reception and $32,400 a head for a dinner. Later this spring, he will headline an Atlanta fundraiser for Senate Democrats.

Mr. Obama's political team also is prepared to share with other candidates another valuable resource: the millions of email addresses and other troves of voter data it amassed during his 2012 presidential race. The commitment is a quantum leap over the scant aid Mr. Obama offered to congressional fundraisers in his first term.

But even with this president's support, Democrats face a stiff challenge; many states and districts they need to take the House and keep control of the Senate are places where the president is unpopular.

In the Senate, Republicans need to gain six seats for a majority. Of the 21 Democrat-held seats up for reelection in 2014, seven are in states Mr. Obama lost in 2012. In the House, Democrats need 17 more seats to win a majority and historically, a second-term president's party often loses seats in a midterm.

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